Sometimes you have to wait for the happy ending. When D.J. Shockley, a former high school All-America quarterback from North Carolina, decided to attend the University of Georgia, he envisioned playing immediately. Instead, Shockley became a backup, waiting four years for a chance to play regularly. Now a senior starter for the Bulldogs, Shockley has led the team to a 4-0 record and a No. 7 national ranking. With a date against No. 10 Tennessee on the horizon, Shockley – patiently, of course – recently took some time to reflect on perseverance and the long haul.
Anthony Cotton: I’m guessing a bye week (Georgia was off Saturday) is the last thing you want right now.
D.J. Shockley: It’s kind of good and bad. It gives us time to relax and rest our bodies before we get on this grind that we have in the SEC. But we’ve been moving the ball pretty good on offense and have some other things going on. It may be bad if we get out of the groove.
AC: But personally, you’ve done enough sitting and waiting for games, haven’t you?
DS: Yeah, you’re right. Sitting and waiting and watching got tiresome here and there, but it was all worth it.
AC: Is a bye week different now that you’re a starter as opposed to a backup?
DS: It is. When I wasn’t a starter, my body wasn’t as tired. Now, I can sit back and relax and watch other people play and see what’s going on. It’s all right.
AC: After waiting for so long, is it what you expected?
DS: It is. I sat behind Dave (Greene) the last couple of years and saw how he handled things, but it’s different when you’re the starter and everything is really on you.
AC: What has been the best part so far?
DS: Just the satisfaction of being out there with your teammates every series, every play.
AC: Obviously you had a great high school career. Who recruited you besides Georgia?
DS: Pretty much everyone in the country. I guess I’d narrowed it down to Georgia, Florida State and North Carolina.
AC: Why Georgia, as opposed to someplace where you might have played sooner?
DS: It was all about the environment of the place where I would be for the next four or five years. The people I’d met at Georgia, I really felt like I could connect with them – players and coaches.
AC: How big an adjustment was it to not play right away?
DS: I had always been the player who started, the one who everybody looked to. When I got to college that got flipped – I wasn’t in the limelight. I wasn’t looked at anymore. It put me in a different frame of mind, but that’s part of the body changing and adapting to things.
AC: I’ve read that the coaches there were sure you would transfer. Why didn’t you?
DS: It was a lot of different things. I would think about the pros and cons of it. It all came down to if I did leave, I didn’t know what to expect or what I would be getting into. I could go to another school and be in the same situation I was in here. I always knew that at Georgia I’d get my chance to play, and I always knew I had people around me who really cared about me.
AC: How close did you come to leaving?
DS: Very close, it was within a day or two. I was very close to leaving.
AC: Do you ever sit around and wonder what might have been?
DS: I did at first after I made the decision. The first couple of weeks it was always going through my mind. But I made the decision to stay here, I made the decision to play for Georgia. You really can’t worry about what-ifs or what-could-have-beens. I left it at that. I said I’m here and I’d make the best of it.
AC: Is it weird that right now you’re known more for staying at Georgia as opposed to what you do on the field? (Shockley has completed 60 percent of his passes for 959 yards and eight touchdowns and rushed for another 151 yards and three scores.)
DS: Yeah. I look at that as a positive thing. It shows my loyalty. A lot of people try to figure out what kind of character a person has. They look at things like being loyal and keeping your word and being dependable. That’s the kind of person I want to be. That’s what a quarterback is – everybody looks to him to be the one who’s dependable.
AC: So now that you’re in, what are your goals?
DS: Right now, it’s really about taking each game one at a time and getting wins. We want to win the SEC and go on and win the national championship, too. We have some lofty goals, and they’re mine as well. If we keep winning, all the individual stuff will come for everybody on the team.
AC: When was the last time you thought of the words Heisman Trophy?
DS: It’s been awhile. I don’t think about it a lot, because it’s such a huge honor. You have to do so much to even be thought of in that light. You can’t even say things like that because you have to do so much to even get to that status.
AC: What about the NFL?
DS: That’s always been a dream. Growing up, I was in middle school thinking there was no way I could play in high school with those big, ol’ guys. Then I went to high school and when I was there, I’d watch college games and say: “Ooh, those guys are too big and too fast. There’s no way I’ll make it in college.” Here I am now. It’s always been a dream to make it to the next level and be a part of the best that’s out there.
AC: By the way, what does D.J. stand for?
DS: Donald Jr. People try to guess it all the time. When I was a kid, I didn’t really like the name Donald because I would get picked on all the time – “Donald Duck” and all that kind of stuff. I really wasn’t very fond of it for a while, and D.J. just stuck.
Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-820-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
